The present invention relates generally to a water purifying device, and more particularly to a manually operable device for purifying water and dispensing the purified water.
The increasing lack of any drinkable water throughout large portions of the world is well documented, and this situation is exacerbated by the fact that in many parts of the world there is also no electrical power, solar power or batteries which are necessary to operate conventional water purifying equipment.
Moreover, even in areas where drinkable water is generally available, there are a significant number of situations where the drinkable water cannot be accessed for various reasons. For example, people who travel to remote areas, such as campers, hikers, and the like, often find that fresh potable water is not available at those areas. Additionally, there is always a risk that the generally available water may become contaminated, at least temporarily, by acts of God, terrorists, and other misfortunes.
As a result, there are a number of devices which are currently available that can be used to filter and/or purify water. For example, there are a number of portable devices which utilize either an activated charcoal filter or a ceramic filter, or both, through which questionable water can be pumped manually to improve the quality of the water. These activated charcoal filters remove some disagreeable components of questionable water, such as bad taste, odors and colorations, but they do not purify the water in a technical sense because they do not remove harmful microbes that may be contaminating the water. The ceramic filters remove some, but not all, of the microbes in the water, and the dense nature of the ceramic filters can significantly increase the pumping power needed to force the water through the ceramic filter.
There are also a number of devices which utilize solar power to operate the water purifier, but these devices obviously depend on the availability of significant sunlight or they are inoperative. Also, even when they are operative, these solar purifiers are slow in operation and often have a low capacity.
Finally, there are electrically-operated water purifiers that include a UV-C lamp which is effective in killing most if not all of the microorganisms in the water by breaking through the microbe's outer membrane to cause modifications in its DNA, which then transmits incorrect genetic codes and kills the microbes. These devices, which may also include activated charcoal and/or ceramic filers in combination with the UV-C lamp, do an excellent job of purifying water that would otherwise be unfit to drink, but all of these devices require an external electrical power source that is connected to energize the UV-C lamp. However, in most remote areas, no such external power source is available, and these devices therefore are not operable in these areas.
Accordingly, there exists a significant need for a device that utilizes an electrically-operated water purifying unit, such as a UV-C lamp, that can kill harmful microorganisms in contaminated water, and that is not dependent on the availability of an external power source to energize the UV-C lamp and/or pump water through and from the purifying device. It is also desirable to provide such a device which is readily portable so that it can be easily carried to remote areas.